Dateline Edmonton, AB over cast 62 degrees

Another beautiful day for traveling and 4 lane highway almost all the way. Pulled in Edmonton around 12:30 this afternoon. We had time to kill so we went to the second largest Mall in the country. 800 stores 110 acres and a hockey rink and a aquarium in the middle. They are building a new one on the other end of town with 330 acres of stores. I guess if you've seen one mega mall you've seen them all.

I included this picture because we had this on our breakfast table this morning and thought maybe Pete a Hobo's could buy these, at least one for our table. This has peanut butter, honey, cheese whiz, strawberry and grape. You just can't beat that. So, Cindy or Ba, if your reading our blogs see if you can't talk Pete into one of these before we get back. If you look real close at the name on the packages they're all made by Kraft, that should give some idea of what vendor to use.

We tried our luck this afternoon at the casino and this time we walked away with a little less cash then when we went in.

Nothing new to report

out

Greetings from Grande Praire, Ab sunny 68 degrees

Aggie and I had another perfect day for traveling. We got an early start and soon got out of the hills and started driving in terrain similar to northern WI. We ended our days travel in Grande Prairie which is about the size of Oshkosh. Started to see beef cattle and crops in the fields. Our accommodation are great and just down the road is a gentleman's club, and I believe I spotted a gal who works with the gentleman on the front porch of the building. I tried to talk Aggie into having her picture with the girl but she said she wasn't interested. I just don't understand it, sometimes its hard to figure her out.

Today was a good day for animals, we saw a buck a doe and a black bear. We were unable to capture any pictures because the road we traveled was as busy as highway 151 back home so stopping for nature pictures wasn't a good idea. We were however fortunate enough to be able to add to my giant animal collection and needless to say I am ecstatic about that as you might realize. Below is the picture we captured and it is priceless.




This is the view we had for about half the trip and as you can see we still have the great Rocky Mountains peeking over the terrain.

We now have made it from British Columbia to the Providence of Alberta and it is a lot like WI.

This is me in front of my latest giant animal. As you can tell its a beaver and it is located in a town called Beaverlodge, image that. As the trip progresses Aggie and I laugh about all the giant animals and even the giant Mountie we have seen and she says we have more fun looking for giant anything.

Aggie and I wanted to go out for steak tonight so we decided to go to a Casino a few blocks from our hotel. We had a great steak and Aggie and I both won a little money and now I believe we have enough Canadian money to get us out of the country.

That's all for today.

out

Greetings from Fort Nelson, BC sunny 61 degrees @ 8:55 P.M

Aggie and I drove from Muncho Lake this morning and had a great traveling day.

These are some of the views we encountered early in our trip from Muncho Lake. It was a little rainy to start and that gave us a unique view of the mountains with no sun.

Just a few miles down the road provided us with these two mountain goats that were in the middle of the road and walked up the hill at their speed.

About 2 hours into this morning trip we happened to see these two guys watching the traffic go by them as they looked on from a bank up from the road.

We decided since we were ahead of schedule to go to the Northwest Territory, and as we headed on up the road we saw a cow and a calf cross in front of us.

Yes you heard right, I said Northwest Territories. Aggie said it would be a shame if we missed an opportunity to say we were in a Providence we didn't plan on going, but just think we can get another magnet for our map. I guess when you put it that way how can I argue with that logic. It's only another 180 miles up highway 77 in the wrong direction for a magnet.

We also saw a fawn on the way, I am sure mom was not too far away.

On our way up to the Northwest Territory we were stopped by a construction crew replacing the planks that were bad on the bridge that goes over the Fort Nelson river. The flag person said to us that our wait should be no longer than an hour. Yes I said an hour. Can you imagine what would happen in Dane County if you told someone that they would have to sit in a line for an hour waiting for a few planks to be replaced? Everyone just sat in their vehicles with no cell phone service and no radio stations to listen to for an hour and no one honked or yelled. We had time to take a short walk down to the river while we waited.

And when it was time to go there were only 9 vehicles behind us. We crossed after the work truck on the bridge backed off and allowed us to pass.

One thing we noticed about Canada is almost every worker is in a union and they have a tax similar to the VAT Tax that our President and Nancy and Harry want us to pay. I guess that is why we had to pay $80.00 for an oil change and our breakfast usually runs around $30.00 for the two of us. I hope Pete at Hobo's don't here about this otherwise he might think he can start his own VAT Tax. Only he could call it a HOBO TAX. Then Ba and Cindy would join a union and then everything would go to heck, what a mess.

Tomorrow its off to Grande Prairie, Alberta and continuing in the direction of home.

That's all for now,

out

Greetings from Muncho Lake, BC overcast 40 degrees.

Aggie and I drove to Watson Lake, BC and found the town interesting but had no suitable place to stay over night. We decided to continue on our trip and drove a little further and now are at Muncho Lake, BC at the Northern Rockies Lodge. We saw some very interesting sites along the way and was worth the extra driving. Below I have included some snap shots of our trip.

Happy birthday to Hailey Schmitz and happy anniversary to Ted and Linda.




At Whitehorse I sure surprised to see a giant Mountie along the road, that sure will go good with my collection of the giant cow and crane.

I was able to get the mud washed off the car and it now looks a little better. Had to buy new windshield wipers. The mud and rain take a toll on them.

This is the only auto repair shop in Watson Lake. I am no mechanic but I think I would try to fix it myself first.

This is the famous sign post forest in Watson Lake. It all started when the military was building the road and the soldiers were home sick and started putting signs up from their home town. As of today there are 69,000 signs posted from all over the world.

Aggie and I saw a lot of buffalo on the way, the first two we saw were fighting next to the road.

Then we saw a bear lying next to the road getting warm off the blacktop.

We even saw a buffalo taking a dump.

and buffalo lying along the road bedded down for the night.

And as we all know if you see that many buffalo you will always have a fair amount of this.

This is what the Indian Chief would send me out to look for when I was little and had been captured by the Indians. This was definitely a good sign.

That's all for this morning

out

Dateline Whitehorse, YT Partly Sunny 44 degrees



Birthday wishes to Kenny Larsen Jr. today.



We traveled from Dawson City, YR to Whitehorse, YT today and again we went without cell or Internet service until last night. It was a great day to travel with a little rain then sun and then a little rain.



We Left Tok, AK and headed for Dawson City, YT by way of Chicken, AK. What a trip, we hit dirt roads from Chicken 60 miles to the Canadian border, then we had gravel roads most of the way to Dawson City with a few patches of blacktop. Below are some pictures of our trip the last two days.







This was the dirt road we traveled. It had just rained so there wasn't any dust just mud.

This was what the car looked like after arriving at Dawson City.

While at Dawson there was a casino across the street from our hotel and so we stopped in to run a few quarters through the slot machines. It was called "Diamond Tooth Gerties".

Here is Aggie losing her $20.00 she gambled, it took 10 minutes and she was broke. On the other had I had a good machine and took out $100.00.

Here is Aggie performing as a show girl because she may have gambled more than $20.00.

Here is the drive to Dawson City that took us to the "top of the world highway"

Here is the local fix-it shop in Chicken, AK. It is only open as needed.

The gas station we stopped at was the only building in Chicken with in door plumbing.

Here is Chicken, AK

Here are a few vehicles that couldn't make any further.

Thats all for today

out

Greetings from Fairbanks, sunny,61



We had a great trip from Wasilla to Fairbanks. We also checked into a hotel with great Internet access so I was able to download some of our pictures over the last two days.

Aggie found a new friend at Tim's house, his name is Sparky.

The mountains going to Fairbanks were great, but bad weather did not allow us to see Mt McKinley.

This was what it looked like coming down the hill into Fairbanks.












Sometimes you just have to pull over and let the traffic go by.

This is a memorial at Homer, AK

This is the marina at Homer and contains thousands of small water craft.

Dateline 39 degrees this morning from Homer, AK

We headed out of Homer this morning on our way back to Wasilla to spend the night with Tim and tomorrow we will be back on the road heading to Fairbanks to meet with cousin Cari and her family. We had a moose cross the road this morning outside of Homer. Tried to get a photo of him and got it just as he was heading into the forest. No photos again today since Internet is not sufficient to download pictures.

That's all for today

out

Greeting from Homer, AK clear 55 degrees



Aggie and I spent the day in Homer and found it to be a unique little town. We were surprised to learn that normal low temperature in Jan is 16 degrees and normal high temperature in July is 60 degrees. The drive to Seward and Homer is beautiful with snow covered mountains and glaciers along the road.



Tomorrow we will travel back to Wasilla and spend another night a Cousin Tim's and then head for Fairbanks on Wednesday.

Date Line Seward, AK clear sunny 67 degrees

We drove this morning to Seward, AK which is 130 south of Anchorage. I was woke up this morning at 4:39 A.M. by my shift telling me it was my last day on the payroll. It was great talking to them but I don't think Don realized how early it was in AK, or maybe he did! Any way it is also Nancy Havens' last day at work also since she is retiring today also. I wish her and Terry all the best in retirement.

I understand Klapper is on our shift now and am sure he will be a great addition to the crew. I still have Jeff's' clock in the back of the car and sometimes I will take it out and just look at it.

This community of Seward is a port where many cruise ships come in and is a jump off point for whale watching, glacier tours and shopping in many unique shops, I'll try to Aggie in our hotel room as long as I can. We are staying in a Army recreation resort area and the accomodations are great.

Thats all for now

out

Dateline Wasilla, AK sunny mild 64 degrees

Arrived at cousin Tim's on Thursday afternoon. Yesterday took a trip to Anchorage to visit Fort Hood Aircraft Museum. We saw the busiest General Aviation Airport in the world, must have had over a thousand small aircraft. Tim made us fried halibut for supper and it was delicious. Today we toured the Wasilla Railroad and Transportation Museum.

We would like to thank Emily and her family and friends for their great hospitality that we received in Haines.

Tomorrow we will leave for Seward which is 127 miles south of Anchorage. We will stay there 2 nights and tour the Alaska Peninsula. We then plan to return to Tim's Tuesday and then head to Fairbanks on Wednesday morning to visit Emily's daughter Cari whom Aggie hasn't seen since she was about 11 years old. We will then start our journey home.

Our blog today is coming from the Wasilla Public Library parking lot.

out

Greeting from Tok, Ak 69 degrees clear sunny and smokey from many forest fires burning in the north.


Aggie and I made it to Tok and tomorrow will head for Wesala, Ak. We have contacted Aggie's cousin Tim and he said we should be there around 4:00 P.M.. No pictures today I am using a computer in the lobby of our hotel and Aggie is back at the room downloading our pictures from today.

Well anyhow we have made it half way through our trip and we are still enjoying the adventure. I will close for now with a B-day wish to Alli on her 7th.

that's all

out

Date Line Haines, AK sunny clear 43 degrees



Aggie and I traveled the ferry from Skagway to Haines yesterday and had a great trip. We got to the ferry landing by 11:00 A.M. but the ferry was delayed in loading so we didn't started over to Haines until around 2:00 P.M. There were many campers and motor homes that had to be loaded and because of low tide is was difficult for these big units to use the ramps without ripping off their sewer pipes under the back of the units.



Once loaded, we reached Haines about 45 minutes later. We were greeted at the dock by Valerie who is Gene and Emily's daughter. We are now at Emily's and she had been very a gracious host. She had arranged for us to meet some of Gene's best friends and served a beautiful dinner meal for all of us. We also had a chance to meet Emily's Mom.



We will stay here for a couple days and then head for Wasella. Aggie and I have decided to also include Fairbanks in our places to see so this may add a day or two to our trip.

That's all for today

out

Date Line Skagway, AK sunny clear 65 degrees

Today Aggie and I took a ride on a train to the top of the White Pass mountains. It was a great day for a trip on the train and we really enjoyed it. Below will be some pictures from our trip.



This is the train we took up the mountain on our trip.

This a back hoe working next to the track. It is only a 1000 foot drop to the bottom of the canyon. I hope he remembers which lever turns right and which lever turns left.

This an outpost for the RCMP that was established during the gold rush days to maintain law and order. There were over 100,000 people rush to this area when gold was discovered.

This is a picture of Aggie enjoying the trip.

That's all for now

out

Greetings from Skagway, Ak sunny clear 68 degrees

Today we left Testlin, YT and headed for Skagway, AK. We arrived around 10:30 this morning. We stopped by the ferry dock and booked passage for Sunday morning to travel to Haines. Then we spent the rest of the day knocking around Skagway.







Our trip today was only 166 miles but we saw the most beautiful sites since we started the trip on the 19 of May. As you can see we saw a brown bear along the road and today we were much safer. We stopped well within safety distances for me to take a picture. You can tell he isn't very interested in me but more interested in eating since they just came out of hibernation.








We had taken so many beautiful pictures it was hard to decide which ones to include in the blog. We have wireless for the next two day but it is barely adequate for downloading pictures. As you can see the terrain is unbelievable.












This is one of the many great pictures we took today on the way to Skagway. Aggie and I did stop by the Skagway Fire Department to visit with the Chief and was given a great tour. I sure miss the nonsense at work that's why I took my clock with Jeff's picture in it so I will never forget his exceptional performances. I hope the new guys are O.K. since I am not there to protect them. Oh bye the way Donnie we are there.





That's all for today.

Out

Greetings from Teslin, YT, Clear Sunny 60 degrees

Our last two days has been interesting to say the least. Yesterday we had no phone service no Internet service and no television. We really had to rough it. We stayed at a beautiful lodge at Bell, BC. This is the last place in North America they helliski which means they take skiers to the top of a mountain and drop them off by helicopter to ski in 30 foot powder.

During our trip to Bell we encountered a small black bear that ran in front of the car and almost became a hood ornament. We continued to see a total 7 black bear along the road just laying around. The last bear we saw Aggie was driving and I said look, there is a bear right next to the road. So she pulled up to the bear so it was next to the passenger side mirror, then she rolled down the window on my side so I could get a good picture. I don't think she realized the bear could have jumped into the car and ripped off my face. She said if the bear had reached in the car she would have closed the window on his arm. Somehow that did make me feel any better having a bear paw in the car with me. We laughed for a long time after that happened.

Today on our way to Teslin we saw a black bear, a red fox (not to be confused the the real Red Fox on Sanford and Son), and a cow moose. We were not fast enough to get pictures of any of these animals. We are now spending the night in Teslin, YT and expect to be in Skagway, AK tomorrow, where we intend to spend a day and then take the ferry over to Haines, AK to see Aggies' cousin Emily.

No pictures, we only have 5.5 mps of bandwidth at the lodge we are staying at.

That's all for now

out

Date Line Prince George, BC clear, warm 62 degrees.

Aggie and I pulled into Prince George around 4:30 this afternoon. We are staying downtown since there isn't a big selection of lodging available. Internet access is bad with only 11 Mps
so no pictures tonight.

We started early this morning from Princeton and drove all day. It was another great day to travel and the scenery was like driving from Spooner to Hayward but taking 8 hours to get there.

We had a great meal for supper and now are waiting for our favorite shows to start for the season finale's. It is hard to believe that we are having daylight until around 10:00 at night. Its hard to sleep when its light out.

Tommorrow we will head for our next stop.

That's all for now,

out

Date Line Princeton, BC Sunny 7 degrees C or 44 degrees F

Aggie and I had another beautiful day to travel. We had made very good time until we hit the border. It took us about an hour and a half to get cleared to go. We drove until we got to Princeton on Hwy 3 and checked in for the night. The motel does not have the best internet connection and so there will be not pictures today.

We stopped at the Grand Coulee Dam which is the largest concrete structure in the world, I sound like Clark Griswald again.

This area of Canada is famous for fruit. There are hundreds of miles of peach, cherry, apple and pear trees.

We hope to make it to Prince George today.

Thats all for now

Out

Date line Lewiston, ID Sunny clear 34 degrees

We are blogging today because we got in late last night and did a load of laundry before bed. We have missed our destination schedule by about 200 miles because of the mountain driving. When we left Butte yesterday we were greeted by 4 inches of wet sloppy snow. It was just a beautiful back drop to the mountains. We drove out of Butte and then hit mountain driving and stayed in the mountains all day.

Once we reached the Idaho border it was at Lolo pass where it was snowing giant balls of sleet. We came down the mountains where we encountered signs that said maximum speed 25 miles per hour for the next 99 miles. We also drove to Oregon to be eligible for another refrigerator magnet which was 40 miles south of Clarkston, Wa. It took us two hours to drive 80 miles because of mountainous driving.

We saw a little wildlife along the way.

Well as I am blogging Aggie is showering and then we will be off. Today we except to reach Canada.

That's all for this morning.

Out

Date line Butte, MT: cloudy with rain and snow, 34 degrees

Yesterday was a great day with Bob and Elaine. We went to the dinosaur museum and took a great tour. Bob and Elaine were great hosts and we took off this morning for Butte. We were on the road at 08:30 this morning and had good driving weather most of the way.

Aggie and I are still dieting but as you see by the picture she may need to back off it for a while.

We Stopped at Billings to have lunch with Candy which is Bob and Elaine's daughter. Aggie had not seen her since she was about 5 years old, needless to say it was an emotional reunion. This was the first time I had met her and found her to be a very nice young lady with a great sense of humor.

Every time we stop and have a bite to eat I expect to see Cindy or Ba, but then I realize I am not at Sir Hobo's. I can only hope that they are staying busy otherwise Pete will be having them fill the half and half containers with a syringe.

After leaving Billings we were on the road to Butte. Just west of Billings we began to see a beautiful mountain range. We ran into rain for about half the trip and then it began to snow in the higher elevations approaching Butte.

We are now in Butte and will leave tomorrow right after we attend Mass at St. Ann's church. Every day as we leave on our journey Aggie reads a passage to me from her daily devotional book and we pray for safe passage.

Tomorrow we hope to reach the Air Force Base next to Spokane WA.

That's all for now,

over and out